The Parsi journey across history and cultures—with a stopover at Irani café

From the martyrdom of Thomas Becket to the holy relics of Hindi cinema

It is easy to see why Ray’s films were classed as arthouse in the West. In Calcutta, they were screened in cinemas which showed regular Bengali films, whose audiences in the 1950s and 1960s didn’t watch much Hindi cinema

How a penniless European prince became the longest serving royal consort

The cinematic evolution of the countryside sends out a social message

Hindi films and the eternal romance of snow

And don’t go away with a goodbye

Soumitra Chatterjee became every character he played

Tantric approaches to a misinterpreted goddess

Will there be an Indian Shtisel one day?

CELESTIAL HEROISM IS a bestseller, unless it is badly made. In it merges great survivor dramas and the romance of breaching the boundaries of human…